Notice Number: NOT-OD-08-012

Key Dates
Release Date:  October 30, 2007
Submission Due Date: December 3, 2007
Response Date: December 10, 2007 (approximate)
Meeting Date:  December 17, 2007

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH), (http://www.nih.gov)

This announcement is to request information and comments from industry concerning the National Institutes of Health (NIH) plan to facilitate the use of RNAi technologies in the Intramural laboratories on the NIH Campus.

Background

RNAi technologies are an exciting and rapidly evolving technique to determine the functions of genes and transcripts.

NIH will establish a Trans-NIH effort to facilitate both moderate (RNAi reagents targeting 10s to 100s of genes) and high throughput screens that ultimately target entire genomes.

The NIH intramural program seeks to facilitate NIH-wide utilization of RNAi technologies. This effort should support moderate- and high-throughput use.     Information for either, or both, is requested.

NIH is seeking firms/suppliers who will enter into pricing arrangements with the NIH to support this research.    

Moderate throughput:

Moderate throughput work (single tube to 96-well format) will take place as a traditional bench-top activity in individual labs. Uniform pricing and a mechanism for technical support of individual groups within the NIH is planned. Purchase units for both transfection and stable integration of human and mouse cells should be sufficient for triplicate experiments for each target gene, siRNAs, shRNAs, and other potential novel reagents are of interest.  Pricing for individual target genes and plates is planned. Transfection reagent pricing is also planned.

High-throughput:

The NIH intramural program will be exploring full genome screens of both mouse and human RNAi reagents. The difficulty of scale-up, including equipment and trained personnel, are recognized.  NIH intramural labs with demonstrated experience in HTS will move towards implementation of full genome screening through pilot work, where the merits of different types of reagents will be explored, prior to commitment to any particular reagent(s).  Information on pricing of reagents is planned.  Pilot work may require close contact between NIH researchers and the firm/supplier research and development staff.

Scope:

NIH seeks to: 1) develop a list of firms/suppliers to provide reagents and high throughput screens; 2) negotiate the most favorable pricing to support the NIH researchers; 3) develop ordering procedures with firms/suppliers; and, 4) provide technical support to the NIH researchers as needed.

Pre-Solicitation Meeting:

A pre-solicitation will be held in the Natcher Building on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, Maryland on December 17, 2007.    

Please see the Web Site for information and registration for the RNAi Meeting at http://www3.niddk.nih.gov/fund/other/rnai2007/

In advance of this meeting interested parties are requested to submit written questions that will be addressed by the NIH researchers at this meeting.  A transcript of the meeting will be prepared and will be made available to the public.

Please note:     All meeting proceedings, questions and answers (excluding proprietary information) will be posted at the RNAi Meeting Web site.

Inquiries

Please address all inquiries about meeting logistics to:

Mr. John Hare, CMP
The Scientific Consulting Group, Inc.
656 Quince Orchard Road, Suite 210
Gaithersburg, MD     20878
Phone:     (301) 670-4990
Fax:     (301) 670-3815
Email:    [email protected]

Please address all written inquires and questions concerning the RNAi initiative in writing (via Fax or Email) no later than 3:00pm local time on December 3, 2007 to:

Mr. Patrick Sullivan
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
National Institutes of Health
Two Democracy Plaza, Room 780
6707 Democracy Boulevard, MSC 5450
Bethesda, MD     20892-5450
Phone:     (301) 594-7728
Fax:     (301) 480-4226
Email:     [email protected]

Responses to the questions received shall be posted on the RNAi website on or about December 10, 2007. Responses to questions received at the Pre-Solicitation meeting shall be posted later on the RNAi website.

This RFI is for information purposes only and should not be construed as a solicitation for proposals or an obligation on the part of the government.  The government will not pay for the preparation of any information or for the government’s use of that information.